New technology contributes to fight against animal abuse Lexi Halvin, Sports Editor February 28, 2017
![With the New Year coming in full swing, Blackhawk hockey continues to prepare for the playoffs after claiming the sixth seed. With the record of 4-10-2, the team consisting of three Freedom athletes, will be continuing their season as they carry on their playoff tradition, pending that they remain in the sixth seed until the end of the regular season.
The hockey team has been preparing for their advancement in the season for over a month now, but have been cracking down on conditioning these past couple weeks.
“The coaches push us harder and harder every practice and expect us to be the best we can [be],” junior Jimmy Kelly explained when asked about how the coaches are preparing for the playoffs.
Sophomore Riley Adams talked about the season as a whole and how the players and coaches are preparing for what comes next. He talked about how the season started off slow, but picked up as it went on. Adams noted that the players are young and that most of the kids came straight from middle school, which is an adjustment.
“We are just practicing harder and trying to come together as a team because we want to perform well in the playoffs,” Adams explained.
Blackhawk is in an open division for high school hockey and they have a specific setup to their playoffs.
Only the top eight teams continue to fight for the champion title. The playoffs are single, one round elimination, meaning that there is only one winner per round. That winner will then move on to face the winner of another game. The top two teams get a bye week while the rest of the six teams play each other.
The expectations for playoffs are high not only from the coaches, but from the athletes as well.
“So far, we have been slowly getting better and better as the season has went on, and we plan on going fairly far into the playoffs,” Adams stated.
Kelly also expressed his confidence when it came to the playoffs by discussing his expectations. He believes that the team could make it past the first round because it would be a team that is equal to their playing ability and they would have seen the team before.
As the regular season comes to an end, the play offs give hope to many of the athletes on the Blackhawk hockey team. The schedule for playoffs will be out in mid-February.](https://www.fhs-press.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Sports-Hockey-Halvin-1-900x598.jpg)
